Cokie and Steven V. Roberts: SNAP at risk, support needed

4:38 PM,
Jan. 3, 2014

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Cokie and Steven V. Roberts

Carly Poe is a 33-year-old single mother in Portland, Ore. Despite a college degree, she struggles to find work and raise a teenage son with serious medical problems. Food stamps - the government program officially known as SNAP - help her survive.

"We've been making ends meet with SNAP," she told The Oregonian. "It's a struggle and a worry every month, wondering how we're going to come up with the money."

"You deal with a lot of people who think, 'Oh, you're not working hard enough. You're lazy,'" Poe says. "(But) we're working really, really hard. There are a lot of people in tough positions ...